The Spinx Co.

Based in Greenville, S.C., with locations spread across North and South Carolina, the Spinx chain grew from a single location in Greenville started by former Shell employee Stewart Spinks in 1972. Spinks slowly expanded his home-heating-oil company and gas station into a chain of convenience stores primarily clustered in upstate South Carolina and the I-85 corridor in North Carolina. The company also supplies gasoline to more than 130 other area convenience stores, and roughly 20% of its total sales come from wholesale gasoline.

The independent, family-owned company generates roughly $465 million in annual sales and is expanding from the Piedmont region toward Columbia and Charleston near the coast. Two new stores opened in 2013 and four are planned in 2014.  The chain added five new 5,000-square-foot stores in 2012. In March 2013 the company bought three Pumper's c-stores in upstate South Carolina.